GUIDI / PETRELLA / SCLAVIS / CLEAVER - Ida Lupino
ECM 478 5476
Giovanni Guidi (piano); Gianluca Petrella (trombone); Louis Sclavis (clarinet, bass clarinet); Gerald Cleaver (drums)
Recorded February 2015
This is probably as far away as it possible to get from Guidi's previous two albums as leader for ECM, his debut City Of Broken Dreams and the follow up, This is The Day (which incidentally was released a month after the sessions for this album had taken place) both with his trio featuring with Thomas Morgan and João Lobo. If the two trio records were fine examples of his work in this format, and the developing relationships within the group, this latest album shows Guidi's playing in a different light revealing more of the player beneath the calm exterior of the previous two releases.
Relationships and their development again play a big part in the music presented, with Giovanni furthering his work with trombonist Gianluca Petrella that began in the band led by Enrico Rava and continued with the two musicians going on to play as a duo in a looser more improvisation based partnership. Looking to expand this further they have brought in the services of US drummer, Gerald Cleaver with whom they had played previously, and the addition of a wild card in Louis Sclavis on clarinet and bass clarinet
with whom none of them had met prior to the recording.
It is this very seat of the pants situation that makes this such a unique recording for the two Italians, and makes for a fascinating set. Much of the music is freely improvised or works off skeletal themes and rhythmic motifs that are then examined and built on by the participants, the exceptions being the title track composed by Carlan Bley and 'Peri I Morti Di Reggio Emilia (To the Dead of Reggio Emilia)', a protest song penned by Turin folk singer-songwriter Fausto Amodei., i n a journey of discovery that covers an a lot of ground over fourteen pieces.
From the opening piece, 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love', for the trio sans Sclavis the sense of a structured yet free wheeling nature of the music becomes apparent. There is a definite theme and structure from the piano, but this is pulled and manipulated by Pertella and Cleaver with the pianist holding down the initial opening gambit so that the thematic beginnings of the piece are not lost completely.
If the trio tracks are compulsive listening, things take another upwards turn with the addition of the fourth voice of Louis Sclavis. Whereas the trio are comfortable with each other, the clarinettist is an unknown quantity, but how he finds his place in the unfolding drama raises everyone's game. This was a gamble that could have fallen flat, as the transition for an improving group that expands from three to four of more can suddenly become a crowded place, however Guidi, Petrella and Cleaver welcome the new dimension that is brought to bear and actively make space for Sclavis, drawing him into the music that they are creating collectively in the moment.
This is a fine album featuring four superb improving musicians in a set that combines spontanteity and structure in equal measures, and brings together players with individual voices and vocabularies on their instruments that play collectively and without ego for the benefit of the music. Such is the common ground that is found between four essentially lyrical players that the music for all its freedom has such a high melodic content that it may well prove an entry point for many who find music of this type a little difficult.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
ECM 478 5476
Giovanni Guidi (piano); Gianluca Petrella (trombone); Louis Sclavis (clarinet, bass clarinet); Gerald Cleaver (drums)
Recorded February 2015
This is probably as far away as it possible to get from Guidi's previous two albums as leader for ECM, his debut City Of Broken Dreams and the follow up, This is The Day (which incidentally was released a month after the sessions for this album had taken place) both with his trio featuring with Thomas Morgan and João Lobo. If the two trio records were fine examples of his work in this format, and the developing relationships within the group, this latest album shows Guidi's playing in a different light revealing more of the player beneath the calm exterior of the previous two releases.
Relationships and their development again play a big part in the music presented, with Giovanni furthering his work with trombonist Gianluca Petrella that began in the band led by Enrico Rava and continued with the two musicians going on to play as a duo in a looser more improvisation based partnership. Looking to expand this further they have brought in the services of US drummer, Gerald Cleaver with whom they had played previously, and the addition of a wild card in Louis Sclavis on clarinet and bass clarinet
with whom none of them had met prior to the recording.
It is this very seat of the pants situation that makes this such a unique recording for the two Italians, and makes for a fascinating set. Much of the music is freely improvised or works off skeletal themes and rhythmic motifs that are then examined and built on by the participants, the exceptions being the title track composed by Carlan Bley and 'Peri I Morti Di Reggio Emilia (To the Dead of Reggio Emilia)', a protest song penned by Turin folk singer-songwriter Fausto Amodei., i n a journey of discovery that covers an a lot of ground over fourteen pieces.
From the opening piece, 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love', for the trio sans Sclavis the sense of a structured yet free wheeling nature of the music becomes apparent. There is a definite theme and structure from the piano, but this is pulled and manipulated by Pertella and Cleaver with the pianist holding down the initial opening gambit so that the thematic beginnings of the piece are not lost completely.
If the trio tracks are compulsive listening, things take another upwards turn with the addition of the fourth voice of Louis Sclavis. Whereas the trio are comfortable with each other, the clarinettist is an unknown quantity, but how he finds his place in the unfolding drama raises everyone's game. This was a gamble that could have fallen flat, as the transition for an improving group that expands from three to four of more can suddenly become a crowded place, however Guidi, Petrella and Cleaver welcome the new dimension that is brought to bear and actively make space for Sclavis, drawing him into the music that they are creating collectively in the moment.
This is a fine album featuring four superb improving musicians in a set that combines spontanteity and structure in equal measures, and brings together players with individual voices and vocabularies on their instruments that play collectively and without ego for the benefit of the music. Such is the common ground that is found between four essentially lyrical players that the music for all its freedom has such a high melodic content that it may well prove an entry point for many who find music of this type a little difficult.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
